Golden Bulls add size and depth at defensive line, QB, WR

TUSKEGEE ATHLETICS

Reggie Brigman, who caught 36 passes for 504 yards and a pair of scores at Tuskegee in 2024, joins a Johnson C. Smith offense that rolled up numerous school records last season in an 8-2 campaign.

Johnson C. Smith’s mid-year football signings target upgrades on the defensive line and special teams.

Among the Golden Bulls’ 11 signees, three – Eric Fennell, Lamont Johnson and Cameron Wallace – are defensive linemen from Louisburg Junior College, which was last year’s national junior college playoff runner-up. Fennell and Johnson are tackles. Wallace is a rush end.

“Louisburg College had one of the top defenses in junior college football,” Golden Bulls coach Maurice Flowers said.  They had almost 70 sacks as a defensive unit, and these three guys are a very, very big part of it.”

JCSU was the sixth-ranked defense in Division II last year despite managing just 14 sacks. Sophomore Lamone Hill Jr. led the Golden Bulls with 3.5 sacks.

Wallace, a 6-3, 260-pounder from Wilmington, tallied 5.5 sacks in 2024. Johnson a 6-4, 300-pounder from Roxbury, N.C., recorded a sack among his 11 tackles in 2024. Fennell, who is from Clayton, N.C., and played at Cleveland High, spent a season with the Hurricane.

“These are big athletic guys, so we just knew that we improved that way,” Flowers said.

JCSU, which went 8-2 in 2024, also added edge rusher Quentin Williams from Hutchinson (Kansas) Community College. A Mallard Creek High alumnus who originally signed with Miami (Fla.) before transferring to Marshall, Williams (6-4, 255) racked up 3.5 sacks and a fumble return for a touchdown at Hutchinson last year.

“You don’t talk to most of your young men about the next level, having played at Miami, having played at Marshall, who came to us as someone that's already on NFL scouts’ radar,” Flowers said. “We know what his end goal is, but he knows he's here to get better in the classroom, work on fundamentals and just be consistent.”

A recurring theme among the defensive linemen is size – something Smith targeted to beef up one of the CIAA’s smallest units in 2024.

“We want to continue to get better in all phases,” Flowers said. “And as we study championship teams and teams that are in the playoffs, one thing that we definitely know is that they're bigger in the defensive line. So what we wanted to make a conscious effort of doing is being intentional about getting bigger with our defensive line.”

The Golden Bulls signed the first international players in program history to improve the special teams. Both punter Andrew Hirst and kicker Lukas Smolen are from London and graduates of United Kicking Academy, a developmental program for kickers, punters and long snappers in England.

JCSU’s special teams regressed last year with just field goals in 12 attempts.

“For probably seven games, eight games of the season, our offense was one of the top offenses in the CIAA, our defense, No. 1 in the CIAA,” Flowers said. “But there was something that stood out that wasn’t one of the tops of the CIAA, and it was our kicking game. We didn’t complain about it, we addressed it, and we addressed it  by getting Andrew Hirst … and Luca Smolin.

“Coach [James] Lott, our special teams coordinator, before the season was over, was combing the country, and he found international ways to find these young men. They’re been a joy to have on campus as they’re getting acclimated to the States and JCSU and to football, going through the offseason program.”

JCSU’s other mid-year signings are spread across the offense. Antonio Crim (6-0, 190) of Raleigh, ran for 182 yards and a touchdown at UNC Pembroke in 2023; former Tuskegee receiver Reggie Brigman (6-2, 175) caught 36 passes for 504 yards and a pair of scores as a redshirt freshman last year and Victor “Trooper” Floyd, who passed for 5,723 yards and 55 touchdowns over his career at Chester High, is the rare early graduate to land at Smith.

Floyd added 1,084 yards and 15 touchdowns on the ground.

“When you look at high school football players that graduate in December, that’s usually something that's reserved for Division I colleges,” Flowers said. “For Johnson C. Smith University, a Division II HBCU that’s a rising program, for us to have a young man and his family say, ‘Hey, we want to graduate and report early,’ that says something for a program to know that people want to come to your school.”

Smith added offensive line experience through the portal with former Tuskegee tackle Brenden Arrington (6-3, 283), who has two years of eligibility remaining.

The key mid-year offensive addition is quarterback Kelvin Durham, who racked up career highs in passing yards (2,096) and touchdowns (23) at Fort Valley State in 2024.

Durham (6-3, 210), who was one of Flowers’ first recruits when he took over as coach in 2020, has a year of eligibility. Durham passed for 5,922 yards and accounted for 62 touchdowns (56 passing) in three seasons with the Wildcats.

With Durham on campus, Darius Ocean, who earned All-CIAA last year after passing for a school record 2,301 yards and 16 touchdowns, entered the portal.

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